hitting muscles 2x with higher frequency a week better than 3x

C

chansen

New Member
i've read a lot and it seems like hitting a muscle 2x a week i.e. every 4/5 days seems with higher volume than hitting it every other day? any validity to this? seems like a lot of the new people here follow the twice a week frequency with an upper/lower split
 
I aim for 5, will settle for 3 but average about 4 times total body per week workouts. There was one scientific experiment that came out saying twice per week was optimum that I recall. However, there are many more that support higher frequency as being significantly better. Try it both ways and see how your body responds.
 
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I think 2 vs 3 x week may be too similar to see any real difference over the short term (most studies only run 8 weeks or so). If we go on protein synthesis studies it is obvious that 36-48 hours after a workout your not growing anymore and in advanced trainers, even with large volume, PS lasts as little as 16 hours post workout. I know a lot of people just want to skip over that and say 'protein synthesis isn't the be all end all of muscle growth' but it is still a close marker for growth and if it's not above base line your just not growing.

Now we have a study like the one from the Norwegian Powerlifting Federation showing that 6x week is superior to 3x week (weekly volume matched) for both muscle growth & strength in advanced lifters which makes a lot of sense when looking at PS response. For example, an advanced lifter training each bodypart 2x week may get 32 hours a week of growth (based on a 16 hour PS response from each workout). Training 3 x week he's getting 48 hours of growth. Now with 6 days a week it's 96 hours.

Between the 2x and 3x a week frequency any short term study would probably conclude little difference in results but for 2x vs 6x week it should become more obvious of a clear relationship between frequency and growth (as the Norwegian study suggests). Lets hope more studies are done on advanced lifters but I'm still backing Bryan and HST ;)
 
I find that working 3 times a week is better for me, if I had the time I would move to 5 times a week and I think see the most benefit.
 
I do two lower and two upper each week. I feel Im able to give more to each split this way. I did the standard full 3xweek and got good results but even better results this way, especially the legs.
 
gbg, that to me, and I may very well be wrong, means that you did not have enough volume when you did thrice weekly. I have become a believer that advanced lifters have to use some type of effective volume multiplier, whether it be myo reps, drops sets, cluster reps, etc., to effectively increase the volume in higher frequency workouts to get the total benefits that high frequency may offer. Doing repeated full sets is too inefficient and exhausting to allow you to reach that volume threshold and still keep your workouts to a reasonable length. Just my $.02 and not worth much more than that.

In fact, there are too many factors to consider in designing any individual's workout to really make generalized statements. You do what you find works best for you. Unfortunately, most people quit before they find that formula.

:cool:
 
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I tend to agree with your statement re volume. I wasnt aware of myoreps previously. Or rather: I did them sometimes without knowing or beimg aware of the benefits. I use them now. Not every workout but more often than I did. I like the idea of quality reps that count. If I ever go back to fullx3 then I will use myo even lore than now. However the volume on legs now are quite high. I do 9 exercises per week excluding calves. That would translate to 3 upper leg exercises each workout which, together with calves and upper body seems too much for me. The way I do now allows for more legwork. One of my goals was to increase thighs. They are now bigger.
 
Age counts too, I think, with regards to recovery.

Being over 40..... just :(

Bryan once advised me to try reducing the heavier workouts, ie; the 5s and negatives, to twice a week - so my current set up would be 3 X week for 15s and 10s, and 2 X week for 5s (still 6 workouts, so lasting three weeks rather than two) and negatives.

I am, courtesy of O&G's very valuable advice, currently incorporating myo reps too now.

Everybody has different tolerance thresholds, not to mention other commitments that get in the way.

In my mid 30's, I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to train twice a day (whole body each session) - 6am and 4pm - every Mon/Wed/Fri, and - even taking into account that I was at my natural physical peak then, I still made my best ever progress (I hit 290lb at around 20% bf)

Sadly of course, it's all been downhill ever since then...

Brix
 
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